


Insomnia

by Sariah



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: BAMF Natasha Romanov, Canon Divergence - Post-Avengers (2012), Domestic Fluff, F/F, F/M, Fluff, M/M, My First Fanfic, Original Character(s), Original Character-centric, Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, POV Original Female Character, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-06-25 23:29:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19755958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sariah/pseuds/Sariah
Summary: My name is Sasha Everton, and I don't sleep. I don't need to sleep and instead spend my free nights wandering around NYC. Everyone says Central Park is dangerous at night, but I don't care. That's how I got caught up in this crazy mess that changed my life.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This is my first fic, and I LIVE for the feedback! I'll try to update once a week, with a minimum of 1k words per chapter. I don't have a beta, so if you catch any mistakes, please let me know. I appreciate all comments(especially constructive criticism!) and I'll respond to as many as I can. Enjoy!





	1. That's Not What I Was Expecting

**Author's Note:**

> The idea for this fic has been floating around in my head for a while now, and I finally got around to writing it. I'm aiming for around 1k words per chapter as the minimum. I'm always open to constructive criticism in the comments, so feel free to give me advice or ideas for later on in the plot. If you enjoy this story, please consider commenting or leaving some kudos!

My name is Sasha Everton. I live in New York City and I work at the hospital in Queens in the ER department. I’m less normal than I generally seem. I have the “power” of not needing sleep. I slept like any other human up until I was 12 years old when I pulled an all-nighter in the middle of summer because I didn’t have anything better to do. I wasn’t tired at all the next day, or the day after that, or after that, and so on. You get the point. Anyway, I moved from the suburbs outside St.Louis to a decent apartment right outside my college campus at the age of 16. After 4 years of college, 2 years of med school, and 3 years interning, I moved here to New York.

I’ve never told anyone about the whole Not Sleeping™ thing. My only sibling is my brother, Carter, who is two years older and almost a foot taller than me. He’s a programmer at Google and lives with his friends Parker, Lynnesy, and Elizabeth. I generally refer to the four of them as “The Squad”, both in my head and out loud. Both of my parents still live in Missouri, and they have a small beach house in Florida that they rent out for most of the year. When it gets too cold for them, they head down to Florida for a couple of weeks, working from laptops.

When the rest of my side of the world is asleep, I spend my time reading, working out, tinkering, or wandering around the city. In the 12 years without sleeping, I’ve become fluent in 6 languages besides English, learned various fighting styles that I combined to become really good at hand-to-hand combat, learned most of what there is to know about survival skills without actual practice, and I started designing little gadgets from everyday objects, some of which make good weapons. I live alone with no pets, and I’ve never really dated anyone, so when I’m at home, music is my constant companion. I like most music, from Panic! at the Disco to AC/DC to Queen, and pretty much everything in between. The only genres I don’t like are metal and rap. Wandering the city is one of my favorite things to do when I’m off work and bored, which is how this story starts.

The trees around me shift slowly as the gentle breeze makes its way through their leaves. I’m glad that I’m out here, enjoying the early summer weather and not hiding away in my apartment. I sit down on a bench next to one of the lamp posts, looking up at the few visible stars. Everything is peaceful and quiet, in contrast to the constant movement and loud noises of the ER. I hear shifting in the bushes behind the bench and get ready to defend myself, even as I get up to investigate. That looks like a person, I think to myself, peering through the bushes. I hear a quiet groan. Yep, definitely a person. “Hello?” The stranger in the bushes startles, sitting up. “Are you okay?” I ask, pushing through the foliage and kneeling by the stranger, who seems to be a woman with red hair and a worrying amount of blood on her forehead. She looks kinda familiar.

“I’m fine,” she says, then falls back to the ground with another groan. _She sounds like- wait, is that Natasha Romanoff?!? That would explain the blood._

“Hmm. How about I help you up and out of this bush?” I reach my hands out to her, palm down.

“I could use that.” She grabs my hands and I pull her to her feet, then we step out onto the path. _Yep. That’s her alright._

“I’m Sasha, by the way,” I say, holding out my hand with a small smile.

“Natasha.” She shakes my hand.

“Do you need a ride back to the tower? I don’t know if it’d be wise to walk back to the tower, it looks like you’ve lost a lot of blood.” Natasha seems to hesitate for a second, then responds.

“You’re right. Lead the way.”

As we approach the doors to the tower, they seem to dematerialize. _Must be some fancy Stark tech._ A soft voice with an Irish accent seems to come from the ceiling and the walls at the same time. “Welcome home, Ms.Romanoff. Mr.Barton has been notified of your arrival. Who is your guest?” I glance around, looking for speakers where the voice had to have come from, but not seeing any.

“Thank you, FRIDAY. This is Sasha,” she says, looking toward me for my last name.

“Everton. Sasha Everton,” I reply in the vague direction of the ceiling. Then I hear a different sound, coming from the air vents this time before a rumpled Hawkeye drops out of the ceiling vent.

“Hey Tasha, hey Sasha!” Clint Barton greets us with a grin. “Get it? Tasha and Sasha rhyme!” I can feel Natasha roll her eyes without even seeing it.

“Dork.” Is Natasha’s response, and I just give a little wave. _Meeting any of the Avengers was not on my schedule, much less 2 of them 15 minutes._ Natasha turns to me. “I’m heading down to the MedBay, do you wanna come with or head home?”

“I’ll head home, thanks for the offer. Bye!” I wave to Natasha and Clint as they walk over to the elevator and I walk out the door I came in. I turn on the radio and start humming along to whatever pop song is playing as I start my drive home. _I can’t believe I met not 1, but 2 Avengers! In one night!_ I shake my head in disbelief. _I wonder what sort of mission she was on, and how did she end up in a bush in the middle of Central Park?_ When I arrive home, I park the car and head inside, ready for a night of relaxation. Reading with a cup of tea is on the agenda for the next 5 hours.


	2. I Brought a Knife to a Gunfight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N I had fun writing this chapter, and I hope you like it! Comment any characters you want to see, or want to see more of. If you enjoy this story, please consider commenting or leaving kudos!

_Two Weeks Later_

_It’s nice out here. Much less busy than the city._ I’m on my way to surprise the squad with some fresh fruit to add on to lunch. The farmer’s market I’m heading to is kind of in the middle of nowhere, but the produce there is really good and really cheap. The windows are down and the radio is off because I like listening to the wind rush by. I keep hearing this weird noise, and I’m about to pull over to see what it is. It sounds like it’s getting closer, and it’s really loud now. I park the car and kill the engine. Are those- gunshots? I grab the first aid kit I keep in my car as well as the hunting knife, just in case. The noise has been quiet for a minute or two, so I deem it safe to start making my way through the field of tall grass on the side of the road.

_I don’t hear or see anything. If I don’t find anything by the end of the field, I’ll turn around._ It takes almost five minutes to get all the way across the grass that towers above me. I emerge at the edge of a forest and peer inside. That’s either a log or a human. Well, logs don’t move, so I’m going with that’s a person. Scratch that, two people. A tall man, maybe 6 foot 3, leaning on a shorter woman, probably around 5 foot 2 or 3. They’re facing away from me, so I call out to get their attention. “Hello? Are you guys hurt?” The woman looks over her shoulder, and I recognize her. “Natasha?” They both turn all the way around at this.

“Sasha? What are you doing here?” I run over to them. Oh, that’s Captain America.

“I was driving and-” a stick cracks about 10 feet away.

“Watch out!” Natasha yells and I whirl around just in time to see a man in all black come running at me. His fist is heading towards my face, so I duck to the side and grab his arm, then knee him in the groin and step on his foot. He starts to double over in pain, so I elbow him in the nose. His head flies back, and I deliver an uppercut to his jaw, which knocks him out.

“Wow,” is all Steve says.

“Where’d you learn to do that?” Natasha arches a brow.

“My mom put me in lots of extracurriculars while I was growing up,” I explain. Steve leans down and wipes a bit of blood off his leg, and I realize that he has 2 bullet grazes on his leg and 1 on his arm. I hold up my first aid kit as I ask, “You want some help cleaning those up? I work in the ER so I’ve dealt with worse.” Steve sits down with his injured leg out.

“Yes, please.” I smile at him reassuringly as I crouch down to inspect his leg. “A normal human would need stitches on both of these,” I say as I gesture to the grazes, “But as a super-soldier, you’ll heal in a couple of days without them.” I pull on the latex gloves and open a non-stick gauze pad, pressing it to the first graze. Only a little blood seeps through, so I add two more gauze pads and wrap them with a bandage to keep them in place. I do the same with the other graze, chatting lightly with Natasha and Steve all the while. When I get to the graze on Steve’s arm, it’s still bleeding, so I take a wad of gauze and press it there for a few minutes. Each time blood soaks into the gauze, I add more, and it takes almost 15 gauze pads to stop the bleeding. Once again, I wrap a bandage around the gauze to keep it in place and to keep dirt out. “All done,” I say, removing the gloves and placing them in a biohazard bag, along with all the wrappers from the gauze.

“Thanks, Sasha.” Steve stands up, dusting himself off.

“No problem! So, how are you guys gonna get home?” Natasha stands up as well.

“Since our car’s wheels are shot out, we’re either going to have to walk to the nearest bus stop or wait here for a couple of hours until Wanda can come to get us.” I hesitate for a moment. _Is this breaking some sort of Avengers safety rule? Am I allowed to drive 2 Avengers? Eh, it’s at least polite to ask._

“I could drive you guys back.” I shrug nonchalantly. Steve appears surprised, as if he hadn’t thought of that. Natasha looks like she expected the offer, and she probably did. “My car is on the other side of that field.” I point to the very large field, and immediately feel stupid for doing so. _Why did I point? How could anyone NOT see that humongous field, especially standing right next to it?!_ Natasha interrupts my mental chiding.

“That’d be great! Are you sure you don’t mind?” I nod.

“Of course! I don’t really have anything to do today. Well, I was going to go grocery shopping, but that’s boring. And I have enough food for another 3 or 4 days, so I’ll be fine. So, who’s getting shotgun?”

“Natasha. I’ll take the back.” That’s nice of him. Also, the back will probably be more comfortable with his leg.

“Sounds good, let’s go,” I say as I start walking to the car, first aid kit, knife, and bright red biohazard bag in hand. “Yeah, so that’s why I don’t cook that much.” I just finished telling the story of my awful mac and cheese attempt, when I almost burnt both my and Carter’s eyebrows off and set off the smoke alarms in the process. I was 16 at the time. Natasha is laughing, but Steve looks mildly horrified. I put my car into park and find myself walking up to Stark Tower with Natasha Romanoff at my side for the second time this month. The doors do the cool fade away thing, and we step inside. Everything looks the same, except a conference room off to the left. It has a sign on the door that says ‘Free WiFi and Hangout Zone’, and the inside is stocked with comfy-looking chairs, snacks, and laptops for students to use. The place probably serves as a refuge for kids with crappy A/C at home, or that are home alone every day in summer, too.

“Hey, Sasha,” I turn and look at Natasha. “If you’re off work, do you wanna come over for dinner on Friday? Sam’s cooking and he makes some killer dishes, plus he wants to meet you after you brought me back.” She smiles at me before saying, “Here you are, saving me again.” I let out a small but genuine laugh, and Natasha’s smile grows.

“I’ll be there. Whatever Sam makes will definitely be better than takeout.” Natasha gives me a hug, which surprises me a bit, but I hug her back. Steve shakes my hand, thanking me, and I wave at both of them as I leave.


	3. The Dinner Party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Shoutout to Edith for being the first person to comment on Insomnia, I really appreciate it! I'm about to leave for a trip that's 2 weeks long. I won't have any devices to write or update the story, so I'll update Chapter 4 as soon as I write it. I have the plot for the next couple of chapters, and a general idea of the plot up until chapter 10. I live for feedback, so please comment with any characters, scenarios, or prompts you'd like me to write for Insomnia! I know that the explanation I gave for Sasha's powers was awful, so I plan on elaborating and making that make more sense in the coming updates. I need a good explanation for her powers, so if you have an idea, no matter how bad you think it is, please comment! Sorry for the long notes, and I hope you all enjoy Chapter 3 :)

I wonder how that works, I think as I walk into the Tower, watching the weird fading doors. It looks like a blue force field from some sci-fi movie, and it looks like glass from far away. "Hello, Ms.Everton. Ms.Romanoff informed me that you would arrive for dinner." I nearly jump out of my skin before I realize that it's just FRIDAY.

"Hi, Friday! Can you tell me where I'm going?" I look around, realizing I have no idea where anything is.

"Of course, Miss. Please step into the elevators to your right, I will direct you to the 92nd floor, where Mr. Wilson has made dinner for the team."

"92nd floor. Good thing I'm not afraid of heights. I wonder how many floors this building has." I mutter under my breath as I step onto the high-tech elevator that actually has elevator music playing.

"The Avengers Tower has 93 floors," FRIDAY responds. I didn't realize she heard me.

"Cool. What are all the floors used for?"

"Floor 1 houses the lobby and private access to the garage workshop, floors 2 through 79 are used for Stark Industries business, and floors 80 through 93 are residential areas for the Avengers."

"Wow." I fidget with the navy blue sweater tied around my waist, waiting for the doors to open. A second later, they do. I step forward, and the elevator closes behind me. I find myself staring at a huge circular dining table, set for 9 people, and an equally huge kitchen off to the right. Sam Wilson is in the kitchen(wearing an apron covered with the same red and white pattern as his wings), directing Bruce Banner to a pan of grilled chicken while snarking back and forth with Bucky Barnes. Steve is helping carry bowls of pasta to the table, and Bucky is making a face at Sam and carrying a tray of breadsticks and fresh fruit. That is a lot of food. Like, a LOT.

Clint is sprawled across a chair with Natasha to his right. Natasha looks up when the elevator doors open, and Clint follows her line of sight. Natasha smiles at me and I notice how her eyes scrunch up at the corners when she smiles really big like that. Clint mimes pulling on a rope, pretending to drag me closer. I oblige with a grin. As soon as I'm close enough, Clint holds up his hand, and I give him a high five. Natasha stands up and holds out her arms, welcoming me with a hug. "Hi, Sasha. Good to see you again!"

"Good to see you too, Natasha," I say with a warm smile.

"You can just call me Nat if you'd like."

"Okay." Someone taps me on the shoulder and I turn around, coming face to face with Steve. "Hi!"

"Hi, Sahsa. I just wanted to thank you again for patching me up the other day." He hands me a Hershey's bar. "You said you like chocolate, right?" I hug Steve, thanking him.

"I love chocolate! Thank you!" See, I wouldn't have thought that the Avengers are the huggy type of people(like I am) but they are.

"No problem. But really, Sasha, thank you."

"You're welcome. I'm glad you're alive and didn't bleed all over my car." The elevator doors ding again, and I look back to see Tony Stark.

"Hey Cap! I've got a nanotech upgrade for you to try out on your shield. Could you swing by the lab tomorrow to get it?" Tony strolls toward us as Steve nods. Tony turns to me. "You must be Sasha Everton. I appreciate you returning our dear Captain, and the lovely spider twice!" Out of the corner of my eye, I see Natasha- Nat- shoot a half-hearted glare at Stark, presumably for calling her a spider.

"Oh, not a problem. Just a concerned citizen who happens to have a medical degree and a habit of wandering." I return Tony's bright smile and semi-awkward side hug.

"Alright, everyone! Dinner's ready, sit down and eat!" Sam yells from the kitchen, untying his apron and hanging it on a hook next to the door to the pantry.

The first thing I notice when I sit is how unbelievably comfortable the chairs are. I could probably sleep in one of these! Well, my neck would probably hurt when I woke up, but if I pushed some of them together to make a bed, it would be fine. The next thing I notice is the enticing smell and sight of all the food in front of me. Besides the chicken, noodles, breadsticks, and fruit, there are at least 3 different types of meatballs, a huge bowl of salad, and a bowl of spaghetti sauce. I put a chicken breast on my plate, then pile noodles and fresh fruit next to it. The final thing I notice as everyone grabs food is the seating arrangement. Going clockwise around the table, Nat is on my left(cutting her chicken with a knife different from the ones the table was set with), then Clint, then Tony, Sam, Bucky(who is also using what I assume to be a personal knife- I guess it's an ex-assassin thing), Steve, Bruce, and directly to my right is Wanda Maximoff.

The dinner goes by quickly, and it helps that Nat introduces me to everyone. They all tell a story or two about things that had happened since they last all met up. Apparently, it's not very common for everyone(or almost everyone) to not be on a mission and have the energy to come to a communal dinner. It's even rarer for said dinner to be homecooked and not delivery or take-out. I add in with some stories of my own, detailing some of the weird stuff that has happened at the ER. The highlights of the night include Nat and Clint's prank war, the car in the ER, and Sam talking about Steve interrupting a moment.

During the prank war, Bucky wasn't in on it, so when he heard Clint scrambling through the vents, he shot the ceiling, thinking it was an intruder. Luckily, Clint was unharmed("Physically! Mentally, I'm scarred forever!" Clint protests) and the 3 of them got a great story.

One guy didn't want to have to walk from the parking garage to the ER, and there weren't any parking spaces out front, so he drove his car into the building. No casualties, but it took a week and a half before the glass doors got fixed. As for the guy in the car, he thought he had a concussion from getting hit in the head with an acorn!

Sam had bet Clint $10 that he could win a staring contest. About 5 minutes in, Steve walked in and opened a can of soda. Clint, without blinking or looking away, said, "Dude. We're having a moment here." To which Steve replied, "Well, I'm having a coke." That caused both Clint and Sam to break down laughing and declare a tie. FRIDAY showed the footage afterward, and Sam won by less than 20 milliseconds. Clint is still bitter.

Dinner ended around 6, but we talked for a while and watched The Princess Bride after. It was almost midnight by the time that I exchanged numbers with Nat and Clint and headed home.


	4. The(Not-Completely-Unexpected-But-Still-Kinda) Offer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N - I know this chapter took forever, and that it's short. I wrote the first part so long ago, then the last part today without rereading the rest, so sorry if it sucks. Hopefully, I'll start updating more often :)

_Crushed. I'm being crushed. I can't breathe. I can't breathe, I can't move, he's getting away._ "Somebody help!" I scream, panicking. I gasp, sitting up. The dream flashes through my mind. I need some fresh air. I open the window, grab my phone, and step outside, sitting on the side of the building. Without thinking, I climb down into the alley, then walk to the street. I'll walk a couple of blocks, then come back. God, if May was here she'd kill me. I wonder if she's nervous about the interview. Probably. I end up at Mr.Delmar's shop, and a woman across the street calls over to me.

. . .

I found myself wandering through the city once again, this time at 4 in the morning. I walk past Mr.Delmar's Deli-Grocery shop, wishing it was open. I get lonely at night with no-one to talk to. I see a patch of grass on the other side of the street that has a bunch of little flowers in it. I have no idea what the flowers are called, but they're the ones that are white with a little bit of pink and purple in the center. When I was at one of Carter's baseball games, my father taught me how to make flower crowns by tying a bunch of them together. I check both ways(because there are still cars out at night, just not as many), then cross the street and kneel in the grass. 5 minutes later, I place a completed flower crown on my head, giggling like a 3-year-old, but grinning all the same. I stand up, turning to walk home, then make eye contact with a teenage boy. I would usually ignore him and go on my way, but he seems to be panicking or recovering from some sort of panic attack, and I feel like I need to help him. "Hey, kid!" He looks up at me. "You okay?"

. . .

"Goodnight Mr.Stark! Goodnight Ms.Sasha!" Peter closes the door behind him. I ran into Peter on my nightly adventure while he was walking the block to clear his mind of nightmares. We ended up here, at the tower. Peter got some calming tea(for nightmares and because he's anxious about May being away for a couple of days. Some business trip) and went off to bed. Now I'm on the 79th floor in Tony's lab at 2 in the morning.

"So, how'd you end up wandering the streets at this time of day?" Tony asks, rolling back to his workbench in his office chair that probably costs more than my phone. Shit. I should have expected that he would ask, this was a bad idea. Tell him, a small part of my brain demanded. I was about to start a full-on argument with myself to decide, but my mouth moved faster than my brain to reply.

"I don't sleep. I haven't, not since I was 12." Tony raises a brow, considering, and I start my usual lecture scolding myself. After a couple of seconds of awkward silence, Tony responds.

"This makes my decision way easier." He stands, looking me in the eye. "I'd like to offer you a job on the team. As an Avenger. Or a medic and backup. It's up to you really." Tears of shock and happiness glisten at the corner of my eyes, and a thousand thoughts fill my mind. _Would I be able to do a good job or even a decent job of saving the world? Am I even qualified to join? Will I be able to hang out with Nat? Will I move in? Do I get to eat more of Sam's cooking?_ Tony must see the turmoil happening in my brain because he pulls out a business card. "Here's Cap's number. Rest for a bit before you decide." And then, "FRIDAY, could you direct her to a guest room for me?"

"Of course, boss." Tony steered me out of the lab, as I was still in a sort of daze.

"Goodnight, kid. I'll see you tomorrow. If you need anything, just holler for FRIDAY."

"Uh- kay- bye!" I managed to stutter out as I left the room, smiling.

. . .

"So the kid doesn't sleep, huh?" Tony shrieks in terror as Clint jumps out of the vents and takes a seat on a bare stretch of the counter.

"Stop doing that!" Tony sits back in his chair, hand to his chest, overreacting as usual. Clint just shrugs, then makes a face at Tony.

"You couldn't have waited for another 2 days to ask her?"

"Why?"

"Thanks to you, I now owe Tasha a pizza from that really good place a couple of blocks away," Clint pouted.

"How long has this bet been running!? How many people are in on it?"

"Well, remember when Cap and Tasha had the one thing, and Sasha drove them back? Wanda suggested the bet after that, but you were passed out down here, so that's Wanda, Vis, Sam, Bucky, Nat, me, and also Maria."

"Huh. So we should probably schedule evals and stuff with SHIELD, then, but that's for another day." Tony spins around in his chair, then stands up, moving towards the door. "Go back to your nest, Bird, and I bet Sasha would love your pancakes," Tony calls over his shoulder before turning out the lights and locking the door.


End file.
